Kindle Fire 2? Yes, Please. Keep Your iPad!

Sometimes, I feel like a misfit. Not the cool kind, you know? I’m definitely not the kind that you’d find rebelling against The Man or anything and I’m all right with that. As it has been stated in previous articles (My Life as a Windows Phone Pariah), I have never truly been the type to clamor towards the favorites or the Most Popular. Maybe it’s because I knew that the head cheerleader usually ended up pregnant with six kids and a horrendous drug addiction; popular doesn’t always equal the immediate response of “I must have this.” because so many better-looking flag girls get left behind with that notion in mind. (Note: I was never a flag girl.)

With all this said, I never bought into the iPad phenomenon. I didn’t need to, really. I had an iPod touch and, to me, that felt like a slight version of an iPad and that was enough for me. Often left uncharged and abandoned for days, my iPod eventually became a gift to my younger sister, who I knew would take care of it. She, much like me, cared so little for its popularity that she, too, gave it away to our little brother. Our mother really never raised us for reliance on a brand and maybe that’s why the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Use what feels good and what suits you; don’t just buy into the ridiculous hype put together by blindingly colorful ads and a promise of something greater when, let’s face it, it’s just about convenience.

This, my friends, is why I fell in love with my Amazon Kindle Fire.

Like a lot of people who jumped for the Kindle Fire, I was swayed by its possibility. Not only could I have something on which to read books (it has been documented that I have a skin allergy with the glue that makes most papers and, thus, I have a severe reaction when reading books, touching cardboard, or doing reams of paperwork), but I would have something on which I could enjoy useful apps, listen to music, and watch movies that wouldn’t dominate my life. It seemed alluring, but the price point was what had me locked in because I knew it was an Amazon product and it is known for on-point customer service for that dollar amount. Think about it: I was being offered a tablet with a touch surface that would focus on reading (which I love) and everything downloaded would come in seconds? I was all about that. I didn’t need hundreds of dollars in hardware that was never intended for any specific purpose. I wanted to spend $200 and get exactly what I wanted: entertainment that didn’t talk down to me or expect very little from the attention deficit disorder addled masses.

I know plenty of people who have rooted their Kindle Fire to essentially be an Android tablet, and it has worked beautifully for them. If you feel like ever taking a risk and possibly bricking your Kindle Fire, it has been done and people have reported that the processor for the Fire is more than capable of running far more than its design intended. However, again, there is just nothing wrong with the Kindle Fire’s Android-based Kindle OS. I want to read books, jot down notes, play Uno and Scrabble with my kid, and wage war against plants and undead hordes. I don’t need much else, you know?

With that said, when the Kindle Fire 2 rumors started pushing forward, I was engaged completely. Possibly upgrading the hardware, adding a camera to the Kindle Fire’s already impressive build (again, remember the $199 price point, you guys) — and reams of other rumored features that will be either confirmed or put to rest tomorrow by Amazon itself — pleases me. I would easily hand my child my Kindle Fire and upgrade to a more feature-packed version of what I already feel is the most user-friendly tablet available. Amazon never wanted its customers to feel like it would peddle cheap machinery into the world, and I trust the company implicitly to give me quality.

Apple, on the other hand, wanted to pile everyone into the same horse and march into the handheld tablet market with plans to burn everyone’s village to the ground and take it by storm. As I’ve stated before, though, that was just never my bag. Amazon stared down to me from its cloud-puffed, heavenly perch and watched, palm to its chin, as it didn’t stress its consumers out or try to oversell. In this way, it’s far more innocent than even my beloved Microsoft as it just kind of hopes you enjoy yourself and it wants to make sure you know that reading, above all else, is what promotes education and enrichment. Playing its lute and lazing about on its pristine pedestal, Amazon awaits to give us details tomorrow while people still lament over the fact that they keep buying new iterations of the iPad with very little differences just to say they have it.

“Right, but my iPad 9 is .000003 % thinner than the iPad 8.5,” they would cheer with glee, clutching their highly priced tablets to their chest, which would essentially just be houses to hundreds of apps that took productivity away and offered filler until the next release.

And I can’t respond because I’m too busy reading from my Kindle Fire and appreciating the possibilities of something built for people who know exactly what they want.

In which camp do you find yourself? Leave a comment and weigh in with your pros and cons!